End of Week 3 - Udon Thani

I'm not going to lie; this week hasn't been the most interesting of weeks. The children have had midterms so teachers are all left at a bit of a loose end, and by loose end, I mean they're on Facebook. Nevertheless, I have enjoyed having some free time at school as it gave me the opportunity to talk more with the teachers and go on a few trips to shopping malls...

The weekend was great though. I travelled to Udon Thani with another ETA, which was a 5 hour bus journey away. We arrived on Saturday afternoon and visited the Nong Prachack park which was beautiful, we went to the Central Plaza mall, to an amazing night market and then to a beer garden with live music.

Cute bunny hedge art

Pretty sculpture

Nong Prajack Park

Gorgeous flowers

Feeding the thousands of cat fish in the lake

Pretty scenery

Koi Karp action shot

My friends at the swimming pool

Night market ferris wheel

The cleanest night market I've been to

Duck and pork noodles mmm

The Chang beer garden

End of week 2 - Khon Kaen

This has been a crazy great week. It started off on the bank holiday Monday when I was asked to attend the towns parade, where each school has a float. By attend, they meant that I would dress up as a queen, ride around on a float in a parade procession and be entered into a 'Miss Candle' beauty pageant (there is a lot of miscommunication) ...casual Monday. Despite the 40c heat in 4 layers of material, it was a fun day. It actually realised that I had won 'Miss Candle' when my director was shouting "number one! number one!" at me and the school were very pleased! Not sure how I'm going to get that trophy home though...

Teaching wise, this week has been a huge improvement. I think that the children are starting to see my as a teacher figure rather than an exciting 'farang' visitor to their school! This week I have taught the weather. I have started introducing games into the lessons, playing them at the end to reinforce the vocabulary that I have taught, and it seems as if they really help with the spelling/speaking aspect of their English learning. Hangman seems to be the winner here. I've had classes of 40 children racing up to the board to fill in the missing letters and it is so satisfying to watch, knowing that you have educated them on something new and that they remember it (most importantly!) Stickers seem to be a great motivation to get them enthusiastic about games.

I spent the weekend in Khon Kaen with a couple of other ETA's which was great, mostly because we got to escape the ghost town of Na Kae for a couple of days. The bus ride was a bit of a mare; we were told it would be around 2 hours but it ended up taking 5 hours in total - classic laid back Thai attitude with no sense of time keeping whatsoever! The bus ride was spent fantasising about English food so naturally the first stop when we got to the city was at a McDonalds! (By the time I got to school on Monday morning - our McDonald's trip was the talk of the school). We spent Saturday evening at Ton Tann Night Market which was the cleanest, most pretty night market I'd ever been to. There was live music and a lot of Chang...

In a gorgeous (very hot) Thai dress

With my 'Miss Candle' trophy!

With some pupils who took part in the parade

With my lovely mentor

Casually on a float

Monsoon season doesn't mix well with parades

With the Director and teachers from my school

 

It had to be done

Tuk-tuk fun

Ton Tann market

Ton Tann market

Ton Tann market - so beautiful

Tourists at Ton Tann

Ton Tann - For couples to attach a lock to the heart

Chang tower

 

 



End of Week 1 - Nakhon Phanom

The end of my first week ended a hell of a lot better than it started! I got moved to new accommodation on the Friday evening which was amazing; it even has hot water and doesn't have any 8 legged friends living there, raise the roof!! Also, I'm living next to another ETA (Steven) which is great.

We spent the weekend relaxing in the area of Na Kae in Nakhon Phanom and visiting lots of temples as it was a long four day holiday (ta Buddha). We went to That Phanom which was lovely and we saw the Buddhist routine of praying and showing respect; they light incense and lay lotus flowers. After that we went to the Mekong river which marks the Thailand/Laos border, followed by a trip to watch a candle parade. I got to see a baby elephant too!

My new little house next to another ETA

 

Korean BBQ

A temple in Na Kae

Paddy fields

Paddy fields

That Phanom

Tourist at That Phanom

Mekong River - Thailand/Laos border

 

 

 

Parade at That Phanom

 

Buddhist rituals

 

A decorated dragon

The biggest candle ever

 

Cute fountains

 

Huge Thai butterflies

A Bug's Life

Arriving at Placement

Having waited 4 hours in a bus station (no idea why we had to get there so early) and travelling for 12 hours on a bus, we finally arrived in Na Kae in the province of Nakhon Phanom. The sub-director took me straight to my accommodation and I immediately had second thoughts about the trip. On the surface it looked okay but the whole place was crawling with thousands of red ants, mosquitos, tiny ants that eat your food, lizards, big spiders and beetles. You couldn't go to the sink without the fear that the spiders hanging above you were going to drop on your head! (If anyone knows me, spiders are like my arch rival, so we didn't get on well at all in the apartment). The sub-director gave me an hour to relax and then I was to head straight to school and meet everyone, introduce myself in an assembly of 1000 students and to start teaching a class of 50 16 year olds right away.

Overall, the whole day was very hot, extremely overwhelming and I hadn't slept properly for days. I got back to my apartment, after being taken around the town by my mentor and after being taken out for dinner by my Director and his friends, and having looked on facebook, I realised that I felt how everyone else did that evening too.

 

Living alone in a little house full of bugs, isolated in an overgrown forest area of the school grounds didn't really float my boat, to say the least. The next day I found out that 3 previous foreign teachers who worked at the same school were given residency in the 'government house' and all left after a couple of days due to it being dirty and uncomfortable - this made me feel less bad for asking to move!

 

 My roommate